Bangladesh
bio-diversity under siege
By
dr.fourkan Ali
As
human population swelled over this past century, the number of other different
life forms on earth, including animals and plants & constitute
"bio-diversity", plummeted alarmingly. And some of them have reached
the point of total extinction.
It
also happened in Bangladesh -- a land-hungry and overpopulated country. Many of
the plants and animals that once inhabited the land that today constitutes Bangladesh have either quietly vanished or are on their way to
extinction. As in other countries in other parts of the world, the threat to
bio-diversity resulted from a number of causes -- invasion people, inroads by
exotic species, habitat alteration, pollution, industrialization, use of
chemical fertilizers and pesticides and indiscriminate poaching, It is
regrettably true that many of the factors endangering our bio-diversity are
man-made.
So
far, Bangladesh has identified six “ecologically critical areas"
(ECA) that were once rich in bio-diversity but are now under serious threat.
These endangered areas cover vast tracts of coastal land and on-shore wetlands,
namely Hakaluki Haor (in Moulvibazar), 'Teknaf Peninsula Beach, St
Martin’s island and Sonadia
island, Tanguar Haor (in Sylhet) and Majat Haor.
The
conservation of the biodiversity of these areas is very critical, said Syed
Marghub Murshed, the then secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
The government was planning to launch a USS 14 million Coastal and Wetland
Biodiversity Management Project D protect four of the six ECA‘s with commitment
of funds from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). "The project is
expected to have a significant and positive impact on the long-term viability
of the country's important bio-diversity resources,” Murshed said.
In
recent years, Bangladesh has demonstrated increased determination and
commitment to address the problem of ensuring sustainable use and conservation
of its natural resources, including its bio-diversity The Department of
Environment (DoE) initiated the crucial step of selecting the ECA, all within
the country's highly significant coastal, marine and freshwater wetland
eco-systems. Bangladesh is also considering setting up a Marine Park and Bay Park along the coast to preserve her fragile eco-systems.
The
Cox's Bazar area in the country’s extreme south-eastern tip, abutting onto Myanmar (Bumra), consists of three component areas of the
proposed biodiversity management project
First,
the western coastal zone of the Teknaf Peninsula (10,465 hectares in area),
which is a long, narrow and forested peninsula separating the Bay of Bengal
from the estuary of the Naaf River bordering on Myanmar,
Second,
St. Martins Island (590 hectares), a sedimentary continental island located 10
kilometers south of the Teknaf Peninsula and third, Sonadia Island (4,924
hectares), a barrier island, a few kilometers north of the Teknaf Peninsula,
The coastal and island habitats represent the sites 'focal area’, totaling
approximately 16,000 hectares. An additional 20,000 hectares, consisting of the
degraded but still bio- diversity-rich upland forest on Teknaf Peninsula, will be considered a 'buffer zone'
The
significance of bio-diversity of the component areas may be summarized as
follows:
The Teknaf Peninsula (TP): It is one of the longest sandy beach ecosystems (80
km) in the world. It represents a transitional ground for the fauna of the
Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Malayan ecological sub- regions. The peninsula provides
breeding areas for four globally threatened species of marine turtles. And
lying along international bird migration flyways, it also serves as a
significant bird area, with over 18 species recorded, finally its onshore water
hosts globally threatened marine mammals.
St. Martin's Island (SM): It is one of the few areas in the world where
coral-algal communities dominate rocky reefs (Tomasceik 1998), this unique set
of environmental conditions, biotic and abiotic, has no parallel in Bangladesh and, perhaps, not anywhere in the world. The island
also supports significant breeding areas for some globally threatened marine
turtle species, and also serves as a stepping stone for several globally
threatened migratory waders.
Saudis Island (SI): The Island supports the last remaining remnant of the
mangrove forests in south-eastern Bangladesh, which once stretched i much of
the coastline of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar districts, ins mangroves are
distinct from the well-known Sundarbans in south-eastern Bangladesh, due to
their development in a coastal lagoon setting rather than in a delta In
addition to this important mangrove area, the island supports a large number of
water birds, rich communities of mollusks and echinoderms and marine turtle.
Excessive
cutting of mangroves at Sonadia Island (SI), extraction of sand dune vegetation
for fuel in all ECM, illegal harvesting of threatened turtles and turtle eggs
in all the ECAs, removal of corals for 1 3 curios at St, Martin's Island,
destructive fishing methods, hunting of shore-birds, and plying of vehicles
that cause beach compaction are some of the major threats to bio-diversity in
those areas.
The
following are the main threats facing sustainable use and bio- diversity
conservation at the ECAs:
O Excessive
cutting of mangroves (SI) and sand dune vegetation for fuel.
O Illegal harvesting of threatened
turtles and turtle eggs.
O Removal of corals for sale as Curios
(SM).
O Large-scale
marine invertebrate (shell) collection for sale as curios and as chicken feed
(TP).
O Destructive
fishing methods, including (i) fishing for shrimp fry (TP,SI); (ii) high levels
of ‘trash fish` and turtle by-catch; and (iii) use of gill nets.
O Hunting of shore-birds.
O Beach compaction by vehicles (TP).
O Degradation
of mangrove (SI) and sand dune habitats due to unregulated livestock grazing.
O Conversion
of critical habitats to alterative land uses, e.g, aquaculture (SI),
agriculture, salt pans (TP), tourism infrastructure (TP), small-scale
industrial enterprises (TP).
O Pollution
and land degradation by agro-chemicals (TP), boat operational discharges,
tourism (TP), small Industries (TP).
O Coastal
erosion and coral damage due to shell and boulder removal (TP, SM).
O Destruction
of sand dunes (turtle nesting habitat) by human activities (construction of
temporary shelters by fisherman, vehicular traffic and boat docking) (TP).
The
key causes of biodiversity loss in the Cox’s Bazar sites are:
O Absence
of legally instituted protection measures for ecologically critical areas,
O lack of effective management
authorities at the field-level,
O Limited
participation by local communities in the decision-making of resource use,
O inadequate
information on status and functioning of critical eco-systems.
O Lack of management planning for
ecologically critical areas,
O Limited opportunities or alterative
sustainable livelihoods,
O Lack of alterative sources of fuel-wood
and fodder;
O Absence of an integrated coastal zone
management,
O Limited public awareness of
environmental issues, and
O lack of technical knowledge
Hakaluki Haor: The second project site offers every different type
of eco-system as well as a new set of management issues. The haor basin in
northeaster Bangladesh is an extensive alluvial plain supposing a variety of
wetland habitats. It contains about 47 major haors and more than 6,000 heels,
or freshwater lakes, nearly half of which are seasonal, At least nine of the
region's wetland sites meet one or more of the Ramsar criteria for wetlands of
international significance.
Hakaluki
Haor itself is a complex of more than 80 interconnected beels located in the
Moulvibazar District, The lakes are mainly fed by the Juri, Kantiala and
Kuiachari rivers and drain through a single outlet, namely the Kushiara river.
During the dry season, the entire area is flooded, and the beels are united
into one large lake, or ham; with an area of approximately 18,000 hectares.
This makes it the largest haor in Bangladesh. Hakaluki Haor is a highly significant site for a
wide variety of waterfowl, particularly Antedate. It is an important destination
for winter migratory shore-birds and crucial as a mother fishery.
The
main threats to bio-diversity conservation at the proposed project sites are:
O Loss of
reed-land and swamp format areas due to conversion of land for agriculture,
O Reduction
in surface area and depth of mother fisheries and other aquatic habitats
(beels) due to sedimentation, drainage and river diversion for irrigation,
O Degradation
of reed-land and gems-land habitats due to overgrazing within the haor,
O Degradation of aquatic habitats due to
agro-chemical pollution,
O Loss of
reproductive capacity of fishes due to inappropriate fishing practices,
O Loss of
genetic diversity due to increasingly intensive tillage of high-yield varlets
(HYV) of rice,
O Unsustainable levels of fuel-wood
collection,
O Over-harvesting of amphibians,
including turtles and frogs, and
O Reduced bird population due to
indiscriminate hunting.
The
key causes of bio-diversity loss at the Hakaluki Haor site are:
O Absence
of legally instituted protection measures for ecologically critical areas,
O lack of an effective management
authority at the field-level,
O limited
participation by local communities in the decision-making of resource use,
O Inadequate
information on status and functioning of critical eco- systems,
O Absence
of an integrated management planning for ecologically critical areas,
O Limited opportunities for alterative
sustainable livelihoods,
O Lack of alterative sources of fuel-wood
and fodder
O Limited public awareness of
environmental issues, and
O lack of technical knowledge.
O Poor enforcement of fisheries and
wildlife protection acts.
The major expected outputs of the
programme: Utilizing existing legal
mechanisms, legal protection is expected to be established in ecologically area
(ECA); an effective field management system is to be operated and maintained;
Village Conservation Groups (VCG) and local ECA Committees are to be
established to ensure local participation and inter-sector coordination; VCGs
undertake urgent conservation and sustainable use activities; ecological
information concerning critical ecosystems at the Cox’s Bazar site is to be
made available to, and used managers; a management plan covering the
conservation and sustainable use of Cox’s Bazar ECA is to be developed and
implemented. The DoE is expected operate and maintain an effective field-level
ECA management system.
Ecological
information concerning critical eco-systems at the Hakaluki Haor site is to be
made available to and used by regional- and national-level managers. There
should be some legal mechanisms at the national level to support the
programmes. Policy formulation and analyses concerning the ECAs should be based
on an appropriate integration of economic and social factors.
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